This Is The USAF's "Safer" Carbon Fiber Bomb That's Also Extraordinarily Expensive - The Drive: "For the third year in a row, the U.S. Air Force is asking for funds to buy a small number of bombs with special carbon fiber shells that make them less likely to endanger friendly forces, cause collateral damage, and accidentally kill civilians. It’s an increasingly important tool for the service to have, but it has yet to start buying them in bulk, likely in part because they’re amazingly expensive.

The Corps has increased aviation incentive pay for the first time since 1998, and in some instances has nearly doubled the monthly allotment. On Feb. 6 Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer granted the Corps the authority to create a specific aviation pay table for the Marines.http://bit.ly/2t0VhGf

The Marine Corps declared initial operational capability for its AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) after builder Northrop Grumman delivered the final of six Lot 1 and Lot 2 Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) units to the service.http://bit.ly/2FFvmqi

Builders laid the keel for the Ulyanovsk in 1988, just as the Soviet empire began to break apart. The ship was such a large project that builders wouldn't have finished her until the mid '90s. Construction took place at the Black Sea Shipyard in Ukraine—often called Nikolayev South Shipyard 444.http://bit.ly/2F3p7LR

WASHINGTON: The basic training plane for Air Force pilots, the propeller-driven T-6 Texan, is returning to flight almost one month after being grounded after a series of unexplained physiological events (what we used to call suspected hypoxia incidents).http://bit.ly/2FE91t3

Every AI advance by the good guys is an advance for the bad guys, too.

A 100-page report written by artificial intelligence experts from industry and academia has a clear message: Every AI advance by the good guys is an advance for the bad guys, too.

The paper, titled “The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation,” calls this the “dual-use” attribute of AI, meaning the technology's ability to make thousands of complex decisions every second could be used to both help or harm people, depending on the person designing the system. The experts considered the malicious uses of AI that either currently exists or could be developed over the next five years, and broke them out into three groups: digital, physical, and political.http://bit.ly/2t0V7yD

WASHINGTON — The Army's plans to develop a future vertical-lift aircraft appear to be slow-rolled, fiscal 2019 budget documents show, despite the service's rhetoric that it wants to expedite the procurement of a new helicopter.http://bit.ly/2FHRtMM

Air Force pilot retention has plummeted to 35 percent — 1,363 pilots have left in the past 24 months. A news headline reads: “Military hopes to curb exodus of discontent pilots.” The Senate is resistant to raising the pilot bonus.http://bit.ly/2F1rj6d

BEIJING (Reuters) - A vice minister of public security, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping, is tipped to take over as China's spy master, five sources said, as the country looks to clean up its security apparatus and plug intelligence gaps.http://bit.ly/2FIz9TP

The man who built up one of the Defense Department's first major forays into Silicon Valley stepped down from his position last week. Raj Shah, formally the leader of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), quietly left his position on Feb. 22 after nearly two years on the job.http://bit.ly/2F1dcho

Russia is working on a long-range unmanned strike system, Zvezda, the official television channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense, has learned.

Speaking to the television channel, Alexander Nemov, deputy chief of the research department at the 30th Central Scientific Research Institute outside Moscow, confirmed that the large unmanned aircraft would appear sometime in the next few years."

Like a tractor – or a tank – the goal of the vehicle isn’t designed for long flight endurance or sleek speed. At a takeoff weight of 192 lbs (87 kg), the company says that the design is geared towards durability, extended operation life, ease of use, and serviceability. Gasoline-powered, it has a flight range of about 250 miles, with a practical ceiling of 6800 ft. It flies for about 5 hours with a relatively small payload of 11 pounds (5 kg.) It can handle a wide variety of climate conditions: functioning at temperatures from -31F to 122F." Read More

Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne said in a statement on 28 February that the latest tranche – worth AUD5.3 million (USD 4.14 million) – will see five organisations across Australia benefit from the initiative.

The investments include an AUD2.3 million contract awarded to BAE Systems Australia to explore the potential use of laser technology to detect low intensity signals. According to Pyne, BAE Systems Australia is the first defence prime company to be awarded a contract through the Defence Innovation Hub since the initiative was launched in December 2016."

Russia develops future combat aircraft | Jane's 360: "The Russian Ministry of Defence’s Main Armament Executive is directing research and development work on a next-generation shipborne fighter and a long-range supersonic unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), the ministry-affiliated Zvezda TV channel reported on 24 February.

Nikolay Maksimov, chief of the shipbuilding institute, said Russia planned to procure an aircraft-carrier system, comprising the carrier itself, carrier air wing and a basing system. The Krylov State Research Centre has designed the carrier. Vladimir Pepelayev, head of the prospective ship design department, added that the new Russian carrier would be equipped with both a ski jump and catapults, and new aircraft would be developed for it, including a carrier-based early warning aircraft." Read More

As a friend’s five-year-old puts it, “China has three navies: the regular navy, the police navy and the sneaky navy.” Each of these three sea forces is the world’s largest of its type by number of ships — at least by some measures.

China is truly a maritime power in its own right, and its sea forces’ numbers matter in important ways. In maritime “gray zone” operations, Beijing employs its enormous coast guard and maritime militia to further its disputed Yellow, East and South China Sea sovereignty claims using coercion short of warfare. This article, which is part one in a series, will focus on these quantitatively superior second and third sea forces.http://bit.ly/2HOOeUp

Indra InShield DIRCM System (Direct Infra-Red Counter-Measure System), the most advance solution in the market to protect aircrafts against the attack of air-to-air and surface-to-air infrared guided missiles, has been selected to equip up to nine A400M military transport aircrafts of the Spanish Air Force. The contract has been awarded to Indra by the international organisation OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement / Organisation for Joint Armament http://bit.ly/2CsyhUz

The Japanese government has consistently and vehemently denied that its hulking helicopter carriers were built with tactical jets in mind. Kyodo—Kyodo
Japanese Ministry of Defense executives have outright admitted that despite the Japanese government's past denials that the Izumo class "helicopter destroyers"were not designed to accommodate fixed-wing short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) tactical jets, they actually were designed with exactly that in mind.
The Asahi Shimbun quoted Maritime Self Defense Force sources stating the following:
“It is only reasonable to design (the Izumo) with the prospect of possible changes of the circumstances in the decades ahead... We viewed that whether the Izumo should be actually refitted could be decided by the government.”
USN

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), specifically satellite-based position, navigation and timing (PNT) constellations have been available for decades. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) started fielding the first GNSS, Global Positioning System (GPS), in 1973 to facilitate precision guidance for targeting and delivery of munitions. GPS has since moved well beyond military use, becoming a ubiquitous part of the global environment. Governments, people, economies, and infrastructures are all fully intertwined with satellite PNT. At the same time, military, economic, and scientific experts are aware of the Achilles Heel that will always plague the system – simple interference through jamming, spoofing or meaconing. Is it time for another navigation option?http://bit.ly/2t2aFSz

The Navy is now integrating technologies for its latest Block III Super Hornet designed to bring a new generation of sensors, targeting systems, computer processing and electronic warfare weapons to the F/A-18 fighter jet.http://bit.ly/2FDQ5L7

In discerning operational requirements, the conceptual difficulties of military science occur. If there is not rigorous thinking at this level, neither technology nor money can help. Today’s senior defense leaders can’t get enough innovation.http://bit.ly/2t2apTJ

Armed with only a radio and a nine-line, a well-trained Marine can wreak havoc on enemy forces. During Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, lethal air and artillery fires destroyed, suppressed, or neutralized targets of all shapes and sizes.http://bit.ly/2FDQ2yV

LUKE AFB, Arizona—A devastating pilot shortfall, particularly in the fighter community, is beginning to be felt across the U.S. Air Force's training enterprise. Air Force leaders have been warning for years that the U.S.http://bit.ly/2BW1rKk

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the Pentagon is “considering plans to send heavily armed, versatile Marine Corps Expeditionary Units to East Asia … as it repositions forces in response to growing Chinese influence”.http://bit.ly/2BXJlHR

The U.S. Army has shifted its counter-drone effort from handheld weapons, designed to disable small, explosive-laden unmanned aerial systems, to larger, more sophisticated weapons, capable of defending bases from large-scale attack, the director of the Army's Rapid Equipping Force said.http://bit.ly/2FDPSHP

WASHINGTON — The White House and Boeing have reached an informal deal on the new Air Force One planes that will cap the cost of developing and producing the aircraft at $3.9 billion.http://bit.ly/2t3XEbe

China's intelligence and security services play a pivotal role in shaping how China's leadership views the outside world – but we in that outside world don't know much about how they provide guidance and direction to diplomats and security officials, or how they help form government policy.http://bit.ly/2FESmpd

David C. Kang, author of “American Grand Strategy and East Asian Security in the Twenty-First Century,” is a professor of international relations and business at the University of Southern California.http://bit.ly/2BUwoyO

The State Department announced today that seven ISIS-affiliated groups have been designated as terrorist organizations. Underscoring the so-called caliphate’s growth outside of Iraq and Syria, the move targets ISIS affiliates in Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Somalia, Tunisia and West Africa.http://bit.ly/2FCTyJI

NAVAL AIR STATION FALLON, Nev. – The Navy's new Air Boss laid out his priorities for the job – with a special focus on lethality and readiness for a high-end fight – during his first site visit since taking over as the eighth Commander of Naval Air Forces last month. Vice Adm.http://bit.ly/2BUk5m2

The emergence of violent Barelvi extremism in Pakistan was brought sharply to the country’s attention last year when Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, an Islamist political party, staged an almost month-long sit-in that later turned violent.http://bit.ly/2FEi790

The Cold War lasted four decades, in many ways both beginning and ending in Berlin. The good news is that it stayed cold—largely because nuclear weapons introduced a discipline missing from previous great-power rivalries—and that the United States, together with its European and Asian allies, emerged victorious, owing to sustained political, economic, and military effort that a top-heavy Soviet Union ultimately could not match.Read More

Israel's armor specialist Plasan was selected to design and produce armor protection for Britain's new Type 26 frigate. The ships will be built by BAE Systems in Glasgow, Scotland and are considered among the world's most advanced combat ships. Armor production for the first three vessels will begin this year. Plasan's advanced armor technology has been implemented to protect armored vehicles and personnel, transport aircraft and helicopters as well as naval vessels. The Royal Navy plans to replace eight Type 23 Duke class anti-submarine frigates with six Type 26s, based on BAE Systems' 'Global Combat Ship' design.http://bit.ly/2Crs3Eo

Popular Posts of the Month

ANKARA, Turkey — A leading Turkish drone manufacturer says it developed a “mobile naval mine” that can blow up warships of all types.
The Wattozz program has been jointly undertaken by Albayrak Savunma, a drone maker, and Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey’s Black Sea region. Wattozz is named after “vatoz,” which translates to stingray.
The Wattozz features the shape of a stingray and is made of titanium and aluminium. It has two cameras fitted into the eye sockets of the “stingray” and can cruise at a maximum speed of 5.5 knots for up to 12 hours. The drone features three integrated engines.
The mobile mine is an underwater drone that can be used for surveillance or assault missions. It can carry explosives and is controlled by encrypted acoustic sound waves.
The stealthy Wattozz cruises underwater and then sticks itself under the hull of an enemy vessel with electromagnetic magnets. The explosion is controlled from a remote station. It can stay inactive on the seabed while in…

The new year will likely bring a new secretary of defense, a renewed emphasis on changing how the Pentagon buys weapons systems and a continued focus on watching technological development by the Chinese government.

C4ISRNET asked industry leaders what trends they expect to emerge in the battlefield landscape in 2019. Here’s what they said:

Accelerated acquisition
“Right now, your toaster can tell your refrigerator that it needs to order more bread, but the world’s most advanced military is still challenged to connect its huge array of systems. That’s just not sustainable. Before the military can start tackling huge technological leaps like artificial intelligence, we have to change the way we develop weapon systems. I see 2019 as the point when the DoD really starts moving away from buying proprietary, stove-piped, closed hardware systems and instead looks to the commercial software world as a model for how we develop and integrate weapon systems. Focusing on commercial-style softwar…

Carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), hypersonic weapons, and the business of cyber security dominated reader interest highlighting some of the most important technological issues facing the U.S. defense industry. By Mil & Aero staff
Of 2018's top 10 most-read articles online at Military & Aerospace electronics, two concerned shipboard UAVs, and two were about the emergence and enabling technologies for a new generation of hypersonicweapons. Rounding-out 2018's most popular Military & Aerospace Electronics articles were on topics concerning emerging market powerhouses in cyber security; vetronics and armored combat vehicles; prospects for a future supercavitating torpedo; advanced military night vision; combat aircraft avionics; and the tense military situation in the South China Sea.
Five U.S. defense contractors are among the world's top 25 cyber security and trusted computing companies, say analysts at market researcher Cybersecurity Ventures in Nort…

It is perhaps axiomatic, and thus seemingly unnecessary, to say that computers have transformed modern war. But they have in ways both large and small; they have, for example, become deeply integrated with the full range of Army operations—part of a broader convergence of domains and thus part of a pattern that has led to the development of the multi-domain battle concept. The problem, however, is that military technology training has failed to keep pace with rapidly growing capabilities.

The result is that despite expanding digital footprints, most soldiers might as well be using typewriters, analog telephones, and chalkboards when it comes to the capabilities they bring to bear in pursuit of military objectives. Despite technology’s massive potential, waiting to be harnessed by members of the most advanced fighting force the world has ever seen, soldiers without basic computer programming skills cannot automate simple tasks, integrate data sources, or effectively leverage the unendi…

U.S. Army researchers are surveying the defense industry to find companies able to develop autonomous cyber defensesfor tactical networks and communications that capitalize on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., issued a request for information (W56KGU-19-R-AUTOCYBER) on Monday for the Autonomous Cyber project. Researchers are looking for cyber technology to secure automated network decisions and defend against adaptive autonomous cyber attackers at machine speed. The Army Contracting Command is conducting this industry survey on behalf of the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD). Overall, S&TCD envisions a combination of several artificial intelligence and machine learning products that deliver autonomous cyber defense capabilities. Specifically, researchers are looking for cyber and trusted computing…